1. Tribute
2. Beavers and us
Lin Juan Dai
3. Dirty Downsview
Selected Works 2020-2024
4. Repair QEW Parkway Highway
5. City Garden
Education
Professional Experience
Community Involvement
Master of Landscape Architecture 2022 - April 2025 (Expected
John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design - John And Myrna Daniels Foundation Opportunity Award 2022
Bachelor of Environmental Design 2017-2021
Ontario College of Art and Design University Bachelor of Environmental Designvv
DesignTO Installation Jan - May 2024
DesignTO/Stantec/OCAD U / Toronto, Ontario / collaboration with Omar Zayed - Proposal selected as part of DesignTO festival public window installation. - The project was presented with grant support from Stantec and OCAD U.
Research Assistant May - October 2023
Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) / Toronto, Ontario - Contributed to data collection, peer-review journal analysis, and collaboration projects with students from engineering and forestry discipline
Spatial design consultant 2021
Burlington/Oakville Climate Activist Group / Burlington, Ontario - Part of a four-people team that initiated a public event call for climate change awareness - Personally contributed to producing promotional materials, spatial planning strategies, communication between local organizations and community, project documentation.
Design Build Competition Finalist 2020 - 2021
Kolab Project X OCAD U Office / Toronto, Ontario / collaboration with Kaleman Sliva - Selected as a finalist for a proposed public installation. - The project was presented over three days in RendezView Art Park, Toronto, with grant support from Kolab Projects. - Personally responsible as the project lead for project conceptualization, fabrication, installation, and documentation.
Youth Mentor 2021
St Mildred’s-Lightbourn School / Oakville, Canada - Provide mentorships for young girls in Arts and connect high school students to Toronto Design opportunities.
Society Volunteer 2021
Oakville Horticultural Society / Oakville, Canada - Contributed to community garden clean-ups, society affairs, and organizing events connecting local community and their public gardens.
Vice President of Social Affairs 2016-2017
University of Ottawa Economics Student Association / Ottawa, Canada - Responsible for connecting social science student faculties with events, assisting students’ networks, coordinating association meetings and team activities.
1. Tribute How do we make landscape legible? Window Installation Public Art Walk-down: January 2024 - March 2024 Individual Contribution: Conceptualization / Fabrication / Realization Collaboration: Omar Tarek Zayed Photography: OCAD University, DesignTO, Stantec Funded by: OCAD University, DesignTO, Stantec ‘Tribute’ is a large-scale textile installation that investigates Toronto’s lost river networks. This work seeks to re-contextualize the city’s landscape as we know it, by paying homage to the once vibrant freshwater network that flowed and carved through the city. ‘Tribute’ proposes an imagined landscape via abstract interventions that centre these historical rivers. Informed by data collected from the Lost Rivers Toronto organization, and ArcGIS data, the installation is a multi-layered composition that illustrates the maps of Toronto’s existing, lost, and imagined water ways. With consideration to the fluid nature of the subject matter, the digitally designed maps will be translated using a batik silk painting technique.
Proposal Package:
Installation Process:
1:2 scaled model
Batik Process
Installation Process
2. Beavers and us How do we work with site? Academic Project UofT MLA Studio I: Fall 2022 Instructors: Behnaz Assadi, Peter North, Elnaz Sanati Individual There is an urgent need to treat water contamination in Taylor Massey Creek, which will eventually flow into Lake Ontario, where we use it as the city’s main water source. However, instead of heavily human-engineered and costly interventions, this proposal suggests a different approach that is a shortcut and takes advantage of what is already happening on-site: creating a beaver-friendly environment so they will make dams, thus resulting in wetlands, thus treating the water that will flow downstream. Based on beavers’ preference for gradient slope, channel length, ground requirements, and construction species preferences, a series of elimination processes concluded where they would likely inhabit the following spots. I am proposing Warden Woods as a testing ground for education to learn from beavers. All these strategies are to pose an optimistic question: Can we collaborate with nonhumans to improve our degrading natural system?
North American beaver Castor canadensis
Original waterway Original waterway Original Waterway
Future waterway Future waterway
Future Waterway
Ground water
Original waterway
Future waterway
Original waterway
Future waterway
Original waterway
Future waterway
Low elevation points
Floodplain
B
Stromwater runoffs
B
0.6%
0.6%
D 0.8%
Ground water
Ground water
Floodplain
Low elevation points
Floodplain
Low elevation points
Stromwater runoffs
Stromwater runoffs H 0.4%
H 0.4%
H 0.4%
I 0.6%
J
J
1%
1%
K
0.7% B
L 0.8% B
0.6%
B
0.6%
0.6%D 0.8%
B
0.6%
M 0.6%
M 0.6%
O
D 0.8%
O
1%
P
1%
O
0.6%
1%
H 0.4%
H 0.4%
R 0.5%
R 0.5%
J
J
R 0.5%
1%
I 0.6%
K S 0.7%
0.7%
O 1%
H 0.4%
H 0.4% I R 0.5%
1%
H 0.4%
H 0.4%
0.4%
J
J
T 0.9% L 0.8% K
1%
1%
0.7%
U 0.8%
U 0.8%
M 0.6%
0.8% ML0.6%
V
0.3%
W X
W
0.9%
M 0.6%
0.9%
0.5%
O
O
O
1%
1%
P
P
0.4%
O
M 0.6%
1%
O
1%
O
1%
1%
O 1%
O 1%
0.4%
R 0.5%
R 0.5%
R 0.5%
S 0.7% R 0.5%
R 0.5%
R 0.5%
R 0.5%
R 0.5%
T 0.9% S 0.7% U 0.8%
U 0.8% T 0.9%
Slope percentage less than 1 percent (ideal for beaver pond)
Ideal beaver pond location 1
Prediction of ideal beaver pond locations
V
0.3%
W X
W
U 0.8%
U 0.8%
0.9%
0.9%
V
0.5%
0.3%
W
W X
Three highlighted beaver pond locations (H, O, R)
0.9%
0.9%
0.5%
Detailed Plan 1 (in 10 years) Slope percentage less than 1 percent (ideal for beaver pond)
Ideal beaver pond location 1
Prediction of ideal beaver pond locations
Three highlighted beaver pond locations (H, O, R)
Slope percentage less than 1 percent (ideal for beaver pond)
Ideal beaver pond location 1
Prediction of ideal beaver pond locations
Three highlighted beaver pond locations (H, O, R)
1g: dry fresh sugar maple - beech
1h: dry fresh sugar maple - beech (old growth)
1i: dry fresh sugar maple - red oak
2a: fresh moist sugar maple
2b: fresh moist crack willow - manitoba maple
2c: dry fresh beech
4b: green ash
8a: black locust
8b: norway spruce 1g: dry fresh sugar maple - beech 10a: mineral meadow marsh
1h: dry fresh sugar maple - beech (old growth) 11a: duckweed 1g: dry fresh sugar maple - beech 1i: dry fresh sugar maple - red oak A: Anthropogenic 1h: dry fresh sugar maple - beech (old growth) 2a:rose fresh moist stalk sugar maple E: twisted 1i: dry fresh sugar maple - red oak 1g
1h
2b:rough fresh sedge moist crack willow - manitoba maple G: 2a: fresh moist sugar maple
1i
2a
2b
2c
4b
8a
8b
10a
11a
A
E
G
5
2c:manitoba dry fresh maple, beech elm, poplar 5: 2b: fresh moist crack willow - manitoba maple 4b: green ash 2c: dry fresh beech 8a: black locust 4b: green ash 8b: norway spruce 8a: black locust 10a: mineral meadow marsh 8b: norway spruce 11a: duckweed 10a: mineral meadow marsh A: Anthropogenic 11a: duckweed
1g
1h
1i
H, O, R current tree species
1g 2a 1h 2b
E: rose twisted stalk A: Anthropogenic G: rough sedge E: rose twisted stalk
H, O, R current species list 5: manitoba maple,tree elm, poplar
Beaver pond + circulation effected
Beaver pond + new circulation proposed
G: rough sedge
1i 2c 2a 4b 2b 8a 2c 8b 4b 10a
5: manitoba maple, elm, poplar
Site selection and analysis
8a 11a 8b A 10a E
Process of Elimination
11a G A 5 E
G
5
H, O, R current tree species
H, O, R current tree species list
Beaver pond + circulation effected
Beaver pond + new circulation proposed
H, O, R current tree species
H, O, R current tree species list
Beaver pond + circulation effected
Beaver pond + new circulation proposed
Process of Elimination Process of Elimination
In 50 years
Cherry Cherry
50m
Aspen Tree trunk (Cambium)
Tree trunk (Cambium)
Aspen
water lily
Alder Alder
50m
50m
Apple
water lily Apple
Birch Birch
clovers
sedges clovers
sedges
5m
30m ragweed
Poplar
ragweed
Poplar
Food source
Food source
Willow
Willow
Construction Material Construction Material
Cherry
Aspen Tree trunk (Cambium)
Apple
water lily
Alder
Birch
clovers
sedges
ragweed
Distance between each beaver dam
Poplar
Beaver pond sizes
Food source
Willow
Beaver active areas
Construction Material
Prey Bald Eagle Prey Bald Eagle
Predators
Alligator Snapping Turtle
Predators
Alligator Snapping Turtle
Canada Goose
Lake Sturgeon Canada Goose Lake Sturgeon Waterfowl Mallard
Lake Trout Lake Trout
3m
Atlantic Salmon
Supportive speices
Upstream: stick dam
Waterfowl Mallard
Atlantic Salmon
Supportive speices
Prey Bald Eagle
3m Predators
Alligator Snapping Turtle
Canada Goose
Lake Sturgeon
Lake Trout
12 -20 years
12 -20 years
1.3m
Waterfowl Mallard
Atlantic Salmon
water retention: 11 days
Supportive speices
1.3m
12 -20 years 1.3m
Eurasian beaver Castor fiber
North American beaver Castor canadensis
Castoroides ohioensis
Castoroides ohioensis
Eurasian beaver Castor fiber
North American beaver Castor canadensis
Time of extinction: end of last Ice Age, 12,000 years ago
Time of extinction: end of last Ice Age, 12,000 years ago
Fall
Summer
E
North American beaver Castor canadensis
Winter
Spring
Winter Spring
Fall
Summer
Summer
water retention: 19 days 5m
downstream: solid dam
5m 2m 10cm
2m Offspring
10cm 40cm
40cm
Mating season
Beaver food cache
Harvesting logs
Harvesting logs
Dam making
Mating season
Beaver food cache
Offspring
Construction Material
Alder
Poplar
Birch
(Cambium)
Tree trunk
Cherry
Aspen
Dam making
Offspring
3. Dirty Downsview How do we live with industrial contamination Academic Project UofT MLA Studio III: Fall 2023 Instructors: Megan Esopenko, Robert Wright Collaboration: Bracha Stettin, Nicole Hekl Before we can consider the future, we must examine the past to understand what may be the site’s present reality. As settler-colonial governments gathered force, Downsview site was parcelled into blocks that were transformed into agricultural lands, then used as De Havilland aircraft company runway as well as industrial area to Bombardier Aerospace company. From extensive reports, the site has been indicated as a site of many industrial contaminants, including PCBs and heavy metals. Informed by contaminantions and started our designs questioning how we can lead with landscape, we came to conclude that our vision for urbanism would be to remediate the past and anticipate the future: anticipate food, energy, jobs, waste treatment, material recovery, soil remediation, and more. New industrialization shapes our design strategy. In conclusion, by centering industry and productivity, we create employment while treating waste, water, and soil. We create ecological corridors and mixed use housing to create vibrant, pedestrian friendly urban areas.
Existing Contamination
Downsview’s Potential Future
4. Repair QEW Parkway Highway Abandoned landscapes as valuable social places Academic Project OCAD University Environmental Design Thesis: September 2020 - May 2021 Lead Thesis Advisors: Bruce Hinds, Dan Briker Professor Contact: bhinds@ocadu.ca This thesis project highlights South Central Ontario’s creek system by reimaging the human infrastructure system. The humanmade highway system has cut through the creek system insensitively. As a result, such brutal actions have disturbed the ecology of the creek system and made it undesirable to local communities and visitors. This thesis characterizes highway exits as an invaluable typology for healing such disconnection and suggests various landscape design languages to revitalize a trailhead near highway exit 111. As a prototype, this proposition hopes to attract highway passengers to become curious, exit the highway, and reconnect to the hidden creeks.
1.
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ri nta
eO Lak
2.
P
P
Highway exit 111 Highway exit 111
Potential Partnership Outreach: 1. (Top-down regional government bodies) 2. (Bottom-up local non-for-profits)
Site Pre-Conditions
Vegetation Found in Southern Ontario
Phase 1: Planting strategies around the highway exit to attract visitors...
Phase 2: A community garden under the highway serves as a social connection point.
5. City Garden How do we reconnect in post-pandemic cities? Competition Winning Installation Public Art Walk-down: September 2020 - October 2021 Individual Contribution: Conceptualization / Fabrication / Realization Collaboration: Kaleman A. Silva Photography: Mina Nowzari Funded by: OCAD University, Kolab Project, RendezViews Park Using plants found in southern Ontario’s landscape and rectangular plywood modular structure. This three-day exhibition asks how public seating can be re-imagined as an ecological hearth for social interactions. As the plants are being given away to the audience throughout the days, the rectangular form reveals itself in different conditions as seating options - from formally planned designs to informal language composed by users, responding to diverse landscapes and the fourthdimensional aspect of time.
During the daytime
Nighttime gathering
Urban landscape
During Installation:
Plants After Installation,
Informal usage findings
found permanent homes in...
Plan 1: Solitude
Plan 2: Intimacy
Plan 3: Companionship
Private Gardens
Public Playground
Furniture After Installation, are used for spatial invistgation
Contact: Email: linjuandai22@gmail.com Phone: +1 289 300 1608